When you are building your boat it may seem a little counter intuitive that it is often the stern that gets the most wear and tear. You would figure it would be the bow from running into things. More typically it is the stern from grabbing the bow and dragging it up the beach.

Several extra layers of glass is usually enough protection. Kevlar will make a good "grunge patch" for spots that get a lot of abrasion, but it is hard to work with. The best material is probably Dynel which is relatively easy to work with and quite abrasion resistant. I've always just gone with a triple layer of fiberglass and had good longevity.

: No, this ain't about seats, thank goodness. It's about hull bottoms and
: fiberglass warfare with limestone river rocks and saltwater oyster reefs
: (etc.). The problem, in a nutshell, is that Leslie and I are scraping the
: hell out of our boats! We're not overly worried about looks, but when
: gouges are going through to bare wood it gets our attention. Specifically,
: we're really concerned about the aft ends, which lose everything right
: down to bare wood for some two inches (see photo below). This took several
: trips to accomplish, btw, and duct tape patches have served 'til now...
: heh heh heh... (omigod)

: We try to be careful when launching, recovering and beachng... but if I have
: to be more careful yet the boats will not be worth having! As chief
: builder I am in no panic; I shall just fix it and make it stronger. The
: question is how to make it stronger? For now I have merely added 'glass
: patches (see website, last entry, last page). I have thought about a
: second layer of 'glass, or carbon fiber, or Kevlar, etc. But nothing
: sounds just right... I need guidance!

: The hulls are built using 6mm okoume for the bottom panels, 4mm for the
: balance. Raka 127/350 epoxy and Raka 5 oz cloth clad the exterior of the
: hulls.

: Thanks,

: Kurt & Leslie

: Note: the photo doesn't show the bare wood clearly, as the wound is
: impregnated with river sand. But the white, scraped up looking glass is
: actually where the cloth ends and bare wood begins. Ouch.